Although intended primarily for professionals, Portraiture Plug-in for Photoshop will be an invaluable addition to the toolkit of every designated family photographer. You already know who you are. You're the person who is responsible for documenting family events - an often thankless job because the way people think they look, is often somewhat different from reality.
Digital cameras can be so cruel. They show us every wrinkle, every pore. What we remember as the luminous glow of a loved one's face may get recorded as an unflattering, greasy hotspot. What we want in our photographs, at least most of the time, is not scientific accuracy. We want our pictures to interpret reality through our minds eye.
Scores of books have been written on the subject of touching up photographs in Photoshop. The process can be complicated, multistep, and very time-consuming. Generally speaking, the original photograph is layered with a blurred version that is then blended into the original photograph using image masks that allow selected areas of detail to come out while less flattering flaws are covered up. Additionally, steps are usually taken to adjust the color, to bring out more flattering skin tones. Photographic direction of this type is both a skill and an interpretive art form.
When you get home from a family party, you may not wish to spend hours painstakingly correcting all of your shots. If you're like me, you gotten calls after such events to the effect "Why don't you stop futzing with the computer and just post the pictures already?"
If you're a professional photographer, it is even worse. Time is money, and your object is to turn around photographs in as short a space of time as possible while still producing excellent results.
Portraiture was able to take nearly every one of my photographs that featured faces, and make them look much better with just the press of a button. It did so automatically and virtually without any input from me. Amazingly, all you need to do to get very good results from the plug-in is launch Photoshop, load the photograph, and select the plug-in from the filter set. The results you're likely to get, even without touching a single one of the manual adjustment controls are likely to shock you.
The magic that goes into this plug-in is breathtaking. Somehow, it seems to know what details you meant to leave in the photograph and what you intended to gloss over or improve. Eyes, teeth, even eyelashes, retain detail while problem areas in the photograph are touched up automatically. Skin tones are improved, blemishes and pores disappear, and the corrected image takes on the look as you remembered it.
The picture of Steve Ballmer, below, was taken at the Windows 7 launch event. I've captured the image as it is brought up in Portraiture Plug-In. On the left are numerous controls, in the middle is a live before and after view. The image shows that you don't need to be a super-model to receive a benefit from this plug in. Notice that without making him appear too "plastic", Portraiture cleans up Ballmer's skin tone. It doesn't get rid of every blemish or characteristic. It just lessens them, making him look more natural.
You can take control of the process and manually adjust sliders to increase the effect were preserved detail. However, in most cases, the automatic setting was enough to produce spectacular results. By the way, Portraiture can produce its output on the original image or as a layer giving you incredible flexibility in your workflow.
The program also seems to intelligently calculate how much detail is blown out in the smoothing process. Novice photo retoucher's sometimes go overboard, trying to take out every single "imperfection". The result can be an unflattering, unrealistic, unnatural photograph that just screams "I've been Photoshopped". My experience in testing this plug-in has yielded pictures that are flattering but not fake. Moreover, Portraiture substantially reduces the amount of time that is required to produce excellent results that will wow your photographic subjects.
Here's the original picture of Steve:
Here's the massaged version. Note, that the effect is more pronounced in larger images:
Although, at $200, it may cost more than some digital cameras, the results that are achievable with this remarkably easy to use product fully justify its price. Unless you're Ansel Adams, and only taking pictures without people in the frame, you will benefit immensely from this top-shelf plug-in. Speaking of price, my only major bone to pick is that separate versions are required for Lightroom and Photoshop, though the company gives registered users a 50% discount when acquiring the additional license. On the other hand, the Photoshop version works the full program and Photoshop Elements. (Support for 64 bit CS4 is available only on 64 bit Vista and Windows 7). Please note, too, that the Mac version (not tested) only runs on Macs running on Intel processors.
